September 24, 2012

Jeremy Ryan, 24, of Madison is accused of hurling taunts and insults at journalists, including singing insulting songs about the death of a longtime journalist, Richard Wheeler. Wheeler died suddenly in November 2011, and the Capitol press room was named for him after his death.

Ryan also shouted derogatory names for news organizations, including the State Journal....

Oh, WTF. Insulting journalists is not a crime. (Even if--sweet-what-the-hell-people-have-lost-their-minds--it somehow, some way, somewhere has become one.) Full stop. There is a strong argument to be made that it might even be an obligation to challenge the Press--as well as/in tandem with the Government--in a truly free-flowing society (and no entity *more* ought to appreciate **more** why than a reporter, if not a journalist. BTW. Just sayin').

***

Here's another thing:

Are those Wisconsin Capitol journalists wimps? Seriously. Or what?

Dang. I can remember, back in the day, as a print journalist, being whacked in the head, hard, by TV cameraman (you know, accidentally, by their big-ass videocams, which were very big then) while pursuing a story. I can remember being *thisclose* to a swinging metal rod near my head while covering a mushroom-workers strike in Kennett Square, PA (while my reflexes are still pretty good now, they were waaaay better then, being younger, and especially for instinctual ducking, and Thanks Be For That!).

OK, I'm making light of this post and the article which inspired the same. OK.

That said, and in all seriousness, and despite my...um, impression of...again, um, The Jeremy, I consider the notion of criminal charges for harassing journalists (even including a journalist who is personally offended by the deliberately offensive mocking of her recently deceased journalist father) to be utterly ridiculous, under the circumstances described.

I'm far more concerned about the danger posed by journalists who think otherwise.

What I'm wondering right this very minute--just as puffy, fluffy fleeting notion--is whether it would be more insulting to say that Wheeler's daughter Gwyn Guenther is betraying her father and his profession OR, simply: "It figures."

With the sycophancy that the media practices in regards to liberalism, any amount of scorn from any sector is to be expected, and applauded. They lost their right's to be "special" when they went full retard liberal.

Fuck 'em.

@damikesc

I don't know...are these the same guys who said Zero had 18,000 at a building that held 5,000. With empty seats. Or how 'bout that million man march that never was? It's for the children though.

Call me crazy, but witnessing the actions of today's "journalists" on a daily basis makes me pine for the more straightforwardly honest days when they were were all one step removed from the morgue beat, called "reporters," bought their suits at J.C Penny's and kept a bottle of booze in the lower right drawer of their desks?

Inga caught on. Isn't this the same guy that was allegedly on his deathbed and Meade wasn't buying it? I believe it was problems with his lungs. For someone dying due to lung health, he can still be up and about and yelling so loud people can't be talking on the phone? It's a miracle, a miracle I tell ya!

I read the news story embedded in the post and the headline is quite misleading. This Ryan guy was screaming at the top of his lungs and otherwise was being disruptive and presumably it was that got him arrested, not "insulting a journalist". Ryan could have been screaming stanzas from Finnegan's Wake or the Finnish constitution instead and still have be arrested.

The scandal here is that the press refused to report the story of Jeremy's constant disruption and abusive conduct. He would stand outside the press room in the capitol and scream and taunt for hours. He ridiculed the death of a reporter's father because she did not write what he wanted her to write. The reporter had to move out of the press room because of the harassment. Jeremy is a world-class douche who believes his anti-Walker cause allows an ends-justifies-the-means approach. Nobody posting here would have put up with it and would have had him arrested for harassment or would have split his pathetic skull. He was criminally harassing a woman in her workplace. That is the key.

If an asshole like Jeremy stood outside Athouse's law school classroom and office screaming all day long, his arrest would not be for insulting a law professor. It would be for disorderly conduct, harrassment, and stalking.

The Wisconsin Law Journal is covering for Jeremy just as it did when it refused to report his original douchebaggery.

"He was criminally harassing a woman in her workplace. That is the key."

But her workplace is a public place. Surely that has to make a difference?

He sounds like a total dick. In a more civilized time such a juvenile feud would've been privately settled with a knuckle sandwich and a bum's rush out the door. But, given the low standard of conduct already in place, what crime has he committed, exactly?

Yes, the press room is in the capitol building, but this went far beyond his speaking in a public place. A courthouse is a public place, likewise a county building or library. Think anyone would allow a douche like Jeremy to scream for hours outside the courtroom about the judge's death mother or across the desk about the assessor's dead child, or in the foyer about the librarian's dead cat?

But it's still illegal to insult journalists or anyone else for that matter? What was it that pushed you into the fascist camp? It certainly wasn't the embassy attacks. How long have you been a secret fascist?